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  MC Mello Interview
interview 0325 added 10.08.05 words: Darkling Dami
technical:
QED
Thought I was a chattabox but, M to the E, L – L to the O. He
can chat!
So get ready for this mini biographic history lesson
one time. Epic! Hailing from Battersea and being one of the
first to be on Hip Hop when it crossed the waters; MellO is a
verbal encyclopaedia on the subject and Darkling Dami caught up
with him at the Ritzy cinema in Brixton and sipped on herbal
tea.. Very nice!
Go MellO “Give Them What They Want”
DD: Please introduce yourself.
 M: I go by the name of MC Mello, that’s M to the E, L – L to the
O. Cos some people put a ‘W’ in it and they are due to get
boxed! I originally hail from Battersea in South London and at
the age of 18 we moved out of Battersea and moved to Brixton and
believe it or not me and my brother started to get into some
problems with the police. My mum was fearful and my brother went
to jail a few times when he was really young and it was coming
on me as well now and my mum was fearful, so she was like “We
are moving out of Battersea!”. So what did we do? Brixton!
(Laughs). I started going to Covent Garden and stuff when I was
about 14 years old and was well into all the popping, the whole
hip hop thing and the Zulu Nation…I was into it deep. I think
its right to say that kept me straight cos the part of Battersea
I grew up in, Plough Road, all of my boys, all of us who grew up
together and there really was a very big crew of us. It was only
me and another brother called Pablo that were the only two that
never went to jail, you know what I’m saying? Where we lived,
people getting scooped by police regular, the police were
fitting people up and all that kind of stuff. This is part of
the introduction cos in that same area of Battersea it was sound
systems and every block’s got a sound system, you got people
from Young Lion, First Class…you had Black Star Liner, you had
Atlantic…you had ‘nuff sounds in the area. The Reggae sound
system thing is, like, you follow your sound and that’s your
boys, that’s the people you grew up with, and you represent for
the sound. In a way, that was one of the main things in the
community as far as bringing the community together with local
parties and things like that. Why I bring this up is because
Battersea was more a Reggae/Roots kind of Lovers Rock centred
type thing. But then on the flip side you had the Soul heads and
the Boogie boys and that kind of stuff. And then when all the
hip hop came, we was all the little youngers, the kids
discovering all this stuff now and all the gangsters and all the
hustlers who were older than us, all the sound men, they all
respect what we were doing cos when they see us come popping and
doing our thing they were like “We cant do that, they’re doing
something proper!”. And in a way we didn’t realise that at the
time, some of your elders are re living their youth when they
watch you, know what I’m saying? Sometimes you don’t realise
that until you get older and you’re watching the kids doing what
they do and you’re like “Yeah!”. So, it’s that energy, keeping
going. And with this energy I was able to stay out of certain
things that other people got into that basically got people in
jail and ting. Hip Hop, the Hip Hop culture and this Hip Hop
world for us… it was our world totally. So when I’m leaving
Battersea and going down to Covent Garden, I am hooking up with
cats from Tottenham who come to the centre and people from
Brixton too, all kind of areas to meet up in the centre and we
all got together and bonded and we got better at what we did and
we cut our teeth in regards to our skill, we got bigger and
stronger and the competitiveness and the respect gained was all
part of it. Them days I was know as Moomin. And Moomin was from
a programme called the Moomin Trolls. I don’t know if you know
this but it was like a kiddies programme, those hippo things. So
I was called Moomin, yeah? And my little brother was called Tu
tikki.
“…one of the main things that
changed a lot of us was Planet Rock and Africa Bambaataa
actually coming down to Covent and just chilling out with
everybody…”
And the reason I was called Moomin, I think I was given
that name by either Denzil or another brother called Fraggle.
These names are important cos Fraggle was another foundation
popper from back in the day. I was called Moomim cos when I was
younger I had really big cheeks and it was all like “Eeee!” and
girls were like doing all this stuff, so the name I had then was
Moomin and I was one of the prominent poppers in the Covent
area. We came through certain crews like the breaking popping
crew we called the 52 Flash Crew, we joined up with these other
cats and we became the SAS. Cos London is called the Big
Strawberry like New York is called the Big Apple so we were
called the Strawberry All-stars. We then formed up with some
other guys and called ourselves Truly Unique and we were in all
these zoot suits, just like the Boogaloos. So back in the
earlier mid eighties, we were oot suited up on stage doing
popping shows just like the Boogaloos did and they were our
heroes, you know. We tried to be like them. So that’s the
introduction, with different popping crews. We used to do a lot
of shows and be on stage a lot popping, before I was on stage
rapping. So that whole thing of knowing what the audience is
like or the whole thing of tasting the audience and feeding off
that energy and giving it back via your performance or via your
spirit. Cos it is a spiritual thing being on stage.
DD: You’re one of the first to be on
Hip Hop after its advent, how did the British sound break
internationally and how did you influence this?
 M: The British sound hmmm… the first to really do that via
records would have to be Nutriment. He was a producer / DJ / sound
man / Hip Hop genius / Hip Hop philanthropist / everything man.
Nutriment. He was a very, very important figure in the history
of the U.K. when it comes to Hip Hop. Nutriment had what was
regarded as the first Hip Hop record to come out from London or
from the U.K. and it was a record called ‘London Bridge’, I
think that was in 1982 or something like that. He also had a
sound system called the Rok Box and they were one of the
original units that started warehouse parties off. And Nutriment
don’t blow his own trumpet that’s the thing about him. He’d done
his thing and if you recognise, then you recognise and he will
respect you for that. But he ain’t into this “Yeah man, you’re a
hero…” But Nutriment, very influential, very important. He is
definitely a founding father in this whole U.K. game. He moved
to South Central L.A. years ago, but his Rok Box sound system
was a major thing using the actual Gremlin speakers, it was an
actual set up, man. So we are talking about heavy weight Gremlin
speakers and amps, Rok Box musical selections, Nutriment Djing
and setting it all up. Getting the white guys to get the keys
for the warehouse to use it for the weekend. So Nutriment,
before Family Function, before Soul II Soul, before Shaking
Finger Pop it was Nutriment. He was one of the key people at the
very beginning.
DD: Who were your influences back then
and who are your influences now?
M: My influences, like the name MC Mello today sounds like some
corny name but you know what man, I’ve been doing it for a
couple years! (Laughs). my first rap influence was the Sugar
Hill Gang, so as a kiddie I learnt all the lyrics and so did
most people in our area. Like I said, we grew up around sound
systems…the whole Yellow Man and Little John and Eeka Mouse and
all those old reggae artists used to ‘toast’, as they called it
dem days, on the mic and it influenced us. And in my youth in
those days when we couldn’t even get in to listen to the sound,
we could stand outside and hear them on the mic. That’s what you
hear on the mic. This is the main influence for me; the live,
direct, transmissive type of teaching. Being in there and not
reading about it, but going through a stage of transformation
due to that human contact. So we meet up there and listen to the
man dem on the mic, or girls on the mic, you are tasting that
spirit, that whole vibe, that energy. When the whole crowd roars
you roar, and you’re roaring cos that individual with that mic
in their hand and the selector that put that record and the
operator who puts that much B-line on it, have all combined to
bring an emotion out of you that you could not hold back. That
is a thing that’s gonna influence someone. If you think “Maybe
one day I can do that”, then you’re going to work towards it.
That sound system thing I think is my main influence as to what
this whole things about. Then on records, the whole Sugar Hill
Gang and things like that…but with my name as I said earlier,
that comes from Grandmaster Melle Mel. So get ready for the
corniness, yeah! So I named myself after my favourite rapper and
that was Grandmaster Mellow. Then it got cut down to Master
Mellow and then to MC Mellow.
“…Chuck D, there’s my big bro right
there. Whenever I am with him he only gets my respect…”
And then I dropped the ‘W’
(laughs). MC MellO yeah that’s good. It was the influence from
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. But its deeper than that
as well because one of the main things that changed a lot of us
was Planet Rock and Africa Bambaataa actually coming down to
Covent and just chilling out with everybody and just busting
everyone’s head up with knowledge and with love, you know. We
were like “this is Bambaataa man and he wants to chill with us”.
What he done in a way, he taught many youth, many kids that Hip
Hop is a thing that shows love basically. Its about family, its
about togetherness and strength. Another major influence was the
movie ‘Wild Style’. I was emceeing those times but not on the
mic. We’d be emceeing in the flats on the estates. We’d be in
there just rapping for hours and hours….but to come out on the
mic… little bit prang. I’d rather get on stage and pop in front
of thousands of people. But after ‘Wild Style’, I was saying
“Right, I’ve gotta come out now. I’ve got to publicly do this.”
So, Jerry Dammers, who wrote most of the songs in The Specials
he had a thing going on in Covent Garden called AAA (Artists
Against Apartheid). He used to put on rare groove/Hip Hop/old
Funk kind of warehouse parties that was not in a warehouse. Dami
they were fiery man. I remember one particular one we went to
with Bionic from London Posse and Rodney P cos we all moved
together. That was when I held a mic in public and really went
for it…it could’ve been the music from Wild Style…and I was like
“I’ve got to bust my cherry, right now!”.
DD: What about now?
 M: Now, there’s not much that influences me to go and write
lyrics, but I tell you something, yesterday I got an album from
a guy from the West Coast. His name is Kumasi, as in Kumasi in
Ghana where Ashanti comes from. And he’s down with a crew called
Remarkable Current and another guy out of their crew called
Tyson. When I listen to these guys I get that feeling, like Mos
Def. Mos Def does that to me, man. I’ve been blessed to meet him
and spend time together and travel with him and the more you
know him, the more you love him. Common Sense comes with some
stuff that really does move me as well. De La Soul, cats that I
know influenced me with their emotion, saying things that just
need saying, you know? Oh, and of course, Chuck D. KRS One.
Chuck D, there’s my big bro right there. Whenever I am with him
he only gets my respect, man. I don’t talk over him, you know
what I’m saying?
DD: The PE era had an inclusive element
to it…
M: Although it was perceived as inclusive but it had an
inclusive element to it.
DD: …building a sense of community
during the pressures of the black struggle, why do you think
that in less then 25 years of Hip Hop the really successful Hip
Hop is predominately all about self?
M: About selfishness and ego? It’s the easiest route to take.
It’s the easiest thing to market apart from sex. Again, being
all about self, you can factor money, bling, agro into all that
and it still comes to the “I, I, I…” If you’re an artist or
writer you don’t need to be deep to boast about yourself. You
can be witty, you can be this or that. At the end of the day, we
are living in a society where there is a lot of selfishness.
There is a lot of “I’m alright, Jack” kind of thing. I don’t
think its something that can be sustained for too long.
Self-talk is in itself self-destructive. If you just focus on
self and your ego, your growth would be limited. There will come
a time one will look upon oneself and say “I aint all that
really. It’s just what I am telling people I am. Is that my true
state?” I think that record companies, marketing companies and
artists themselves are choosing it as the easiest route to go
and the public seem to want it. And its not just music. If you
want to look at advertising, movies, books, our so-called
‘popular culture’ is very shallow. Even when they are talking
about self, none of them are going to their selves on a level
when they ask, “What am I, really? When I am happy or I am sad,
what is I? Who am I? Where am I from? Where will I go? Why am I
here?” People will leave those questions alone. I also think
that many men and women have come up in our Hip Hop culture and
have been born as leaders and teachers and guides. They have
come up and started to reflect that guidance or teaching or
actually showing people that you are a master of your own self.
This is your potential, actualise it. That is something I think
a lot of institutions will fear because it’s not something that
you can control. Hip Hop is a thing like “You cant tame me and
don’t try it.” That’s why people talk about Hip Hop and call it
the Rap industry. And they are right, it is an industry. Its
about hard work, turnover and money. I think its human nature
that we will deal with something that’s shallow until until
somebody comes and busts some depth on their arse. Some will
benefit and some others will benefit without knowing that they
have, know what I mean? Some people want to maintain their level
of ignorance.
“…Me and Monie knew each other since
the days we were pubeless…”
DD: How did emceeing become your forte
over the other elements of Hip Hop?
M: I was doing both (MCing and Popping). A lot of the times, me,
Rodney P, Monie Love, Cutmaster Swifts’ rappers called the No
Parking MC’s, a guy called Lindford who did the beat box…. we’d
do some popping, we’d do some rapping. Like with Cutmaster Swift
was a wicked breaker. Incredible breaker. What?! Incredible… Cutmaster
Swift was an incredible breaker. He was also one of the worlds
best DJ’s. I haven’t popped for about 15 years or so but I was
in one of the most prominent popping crews in Europe and there
was only four of us in that crew. We were Truly Unique. At the
same time I was rapping and was quite dominant in that. Me and
Rodney P were rapping partners for two years and then Rodney P,
Bionic, the recently deceased Sipho and Biznizz formed The
London Posse. I went with DJ Pogo and Sparky…we called ourselves
the Jus Badd Kru., so Monie comes in and we’ve got a solid crew.
A male rapper, a female rapper, Dj Pogo one of the greatest DJs
in London and the U.K. and the musical magician and genius
Sparky who made all the beats and the music ended up to be
Pogo’s rapper. At this point we started working out together and
doing shows. We were seen by a guy called Ricky Reynolds who had
an organisation called the Hip Hop alliance and what he did was
to get kids and make them some money. He formed a label called
Tough Groove and said “I wanna record you guys and release it”.
So we made our first record in 1987 and last week I heard that
this guy who writes for the Hip Hop Connection bought the record
on Ebay for 41 pounds. And that’s nothing cos last week we found
out that Icepick, Grizzly and the Shakah Shazam tune went on
Ebay for two hundred and something pounds!
DD: Can we get back to those days where
HH was a form of schooling and a way to keep out of trouble by
b-boying down at Covent Garden?
 M: You can’t get back to those days, they are in the past. I
think that If you look at the mid to late eighties, there was
more of a sense of community. I think that Maggie Thatcher
really destroyed that and we can’t go back to those times. But,
one thing that’s constant within human beings is emotion and
human interaction and that’s one of the things about those
Covent days that was special. It was about the family, how you
dealt with each other by sharing times with each other. Those
things still exist and will come back in different ways. I was
going through Covent last week and was thinking that people, if
they wanted to, can do that now. Cos before we were there, other
people were there doing their own things. There were people like
Tic and Tok and other street performers doing their own thing.
When we came to Covent, we were busking. That was initially the
main thing, to busk. That vibe is still there and it can still
happen again. It can’t be recreated but can be regenerated.
DD: You have your fingers in lots of
pies, recently co-hosting the Breakin Convention with Jonzi D,
what was it about that leaped out at you as a must do?
M: Jonzi is my boy from morning, from a long time ago. We are
one day apart in birth. We’re very similar in things, but
different things in life cause us to be different, but the fact
is we are very similar in essence. I’ve got a lot of love for
that brother and he’s got a lot of love for me. I’d seen Jonzi
with the Apricot Jam before and certain other things. We used to
spend a lot of time together and if I am trying some things I
would run it by him ask him what he thinks about it. We’d sit
down together and he’d also run ideas by me. That whole sound
system thing and growing up in church, you know by Dad is a
pastor, know what I mean? He wasn’t bible thumping and would
never push us into anything. But, my Dad was the assistant
pastor in the biggest black church in England and Wales for a
very long time until other organisations came in. All through
the eighties I was going to church until I was old enough to say
that I wouldn’t go no more. This mixed with the sound system
thing gave me an advantage in regards to interacting with
people. So when Jonzi had an idea, I was the muse for him. So
when he came down to telling me what he wanted to do with the
Breakin Convention I was 100 % behind that.
DD: Breakin’ convention started off
with Hip Hop Horror Night, what do scares you about HH today?
M: That’s a nice question, I like the way you came on to that.
Nothing scares me about it. There’s not much that scares me.
What I m concerned about is if the negativity keeps running on
how it is, I am worried that we are gonna see more of our people
getting killed, man. At the end of the day if more women and
more sisters are being broken down and perceiving themselves to
be less than they are, that to me is a horrible thing. These are
things that I have a concern about and I think that I wanna see
more men and women in Hip Hop, not boys and girls. I don’t
believe all this photo session stuff with jewels and that.
There’s no balance there. The consciousness, the knowledge, the
intelligence, the cultural richness, encouraging each other to
advance and to become more than you are, to be able to actualise
your true potential is not being addressed in the whole rap
ting. If that’s not addressed in life then you’ll have a
generation of nutters who don’t give a shit about what’s going
on. There’s people in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s who have stuff
to offer and are not getting through. It is easier and less
hassle to deal with some egotistical little boy who has the size
and voice of a man, and has kept the boyhood in him. I also
think that optimistically that you can only sustain that trend
for a limited time. If trends are not based on core truths then
they cannot exist for too long. You know when you talk about the
swinging sixties and all them things? That in a way was the
result of what some might call the repression of the 40’s and
50’s. I think that the nineties was an age of decadence and
extreme selfishness. I am looking at these new kids coming up
who are looking at their parents and thinking “what you doing,
man? Why are you into that rubbish?” I am seeing a change
happen.
“…whatever good has come in my life
or perceived hardships, it allows me to be wiser. Maybe I can
help somebody else…”
DD: There was a lot of politics
surrounding your album due to come out on Jazzie B’s Funki Dred
label way back when what happened there?
M: There will always be record companies trying to shelve you
for whatever reason. You’ve got A&R men who are signing artists
for example and they are working that artist until that A&R man
leaves and goes to another job. This artist is sitting here and
the record companies like “we don’t know what to do with him”.
Put their shit out. That’s what you do with them. Why did you
sign them for? In all walks of life you find idiots or people
who are not visionaries who are trying to play that they are.
And when something happens that calls on them to actually show
their vision, you actually see that they are blind. As far as
what happened in the past with Jazzie and the Funki Dred thing,
I think that I have spoken about that enough. Right now I look
at that as being one of those learning curves that I wouldn’t
really change. The album came out, unfortunately not a lot of
people heard it when they should have heard it. Who knows what
would’ve happened but I am sure that it would have blown up. But
it didn’t, that was not meant to be. I am thankful to Jazzie for
whatever he did and didn’t do. I am thankful even for sitting
down here and doing this, so whatever good has come in my life
or perceived hardships, it allows me to be wiser. Maybe I can
help somebody else. That second album is still coming out for
those who wanted it. Lyrically it was really powerful and is
still powerful today. Things I was talking about in ’91 still
makes sense today.
DD: In 1991 you teamed up with
Cameroon’s Jazz musician Manu Dibango, what was that experience
like?
M: Wicked, man. I get a phone call from Simon Booth of jazz
group Working Week. So Simon Booth calls up and starts talking
about Manu Dibango wanting me to come down and rap on a tune.
What??! I was like, “yeah!”. I was there like, last week, I got
in there so quick. It could also be cos I did the Young
Disciples and Simon had heard that and the way I dealt with the
track was very deep and spiritual and I was right for the
project. So I came down and met Manu Dibango and his whole band.
Everybody just took me straight to their heart and I was like
“what’s the song about, Manu?” and he said, “I want you to
picture somebody. He or she is an artist and they are making a
beautiful thing from their heart but they are blind. But yet its
form is beautiful….”. I said, “Yep!”. So I just took my pad away
and just started writing the lyrics. 15 or 20 minutes I come
back in, get the mic up, boom! Done. And he was like (in French
accent) “MC! MC! You are now the jazz rapper! You are rapping
just like jazz!”. So after that they had another song they
wanted me to do and I busted that. Then he took me on tour and I
was kind of like a little nephew for him. He brought me to his
home, I met his wife and his family. We sat and ate dinner
together cooked by his wife in Paris. I was highly honoured man.
DD: Who else have you worked with over
the years?
 M: Junior Giscombe, when he did his comeback album. I got quite
a bit of work from Blacksmith. They were doing a lot of
production for people and when the needed a rapper they would
call me in and they also produced my single ‘Open Up Your Mind’
and we got on really well. They know that if they need a job
done, then call me in. I am versatile, I can blast off anything,
just bring it! Karen Wheeler, after Soul II Soul, she came with
her album and I am the feature rapper on there. There was this
group called Serenade and I rapped on a track called ‘Friend Not
a Lover’. That was straight up RnB from U.K. girls from this
area. Stuff in other countries too, like in Italy I worked with
a rapper called Neffa and did a couple cuts from his album.
There’s collaborations with other so many other rappers, cant
remember them all, jazz and soul artists. I worked on a project
with Estelle called ATG (Against The Grain), which was Estelle,
Icepick, Grizzly, Basmatic, Don-E and myself. We put out a
couple of E.P.’s together.
DD: You’ve been hard at work in the
studio, what can we look forward to from you?
M: You got that baby right there (he points to his latest track
that he’s bought as a gift for me. ‘Give Them What They Want’)
and its another banger, its not orthodox. There’s no bass line
or guitar on it. There’s no piano. It’s strictly brass, horns
and drums and me. And when you hear it you’ll swear there is
piano, b-line and all these things in it. It’s a conceptual
thing. The rules of the bass drum, the rules of the snare drum,
the rules of the sub-harmonics, the rules of the flow that’s in
there and that keeps your attention. The memorable chorus
without it being corny or over complex. We are following some of
the rules, know what I mean? It wasn’t planned, it developed
continuously like that. It’s a natural, organic development and
we’re really happy with the end result.
As far as an album goes, I’ve now got about four or five albums
in me but I have to ease people in cos with the things I want to
talk about, I still haven’t found a way to say it in a way
that’s palatable without losing people. Things like the nature
of the human being, the soul and spirit. I have to redirect the
audience towards me. I think the first album will start to ease
people towards me and by the time we get to the second one I
think you’ll get some beautiful music on there. Especially some
of the singing aspects of it. I’ve been quite content with
myself over the last few years and some of things that used to
make me spit fire don’t do that to me anymore. There’s gonna
have to be a whole other approach that brings out the music in
me and one thing I find that works are deadlines! (Laughs).
“…I am more inclined to listen to my
own peoples things because I find I can really meditate on them
and really absorb them and people that I know have a level of
integrity…”
DD: How has your fan base changed over
the years?
M: I’ve toured with Gang Starr for a month, I’d done a Cypress
Hill tour, Call of The Wild tour… these were tours of Europe and
then we got our own tours. Whenever these artists came to
Britain, I was the person to support them. KRS 1, Jungle
Brothers, Queen Latifah, De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Big
Daddy Cane, EPMD, Public Enemy….all of them greats! When they
come over doing Brixton Academy, Shepherds Bush, Birmingham…. I
am on tour with them. NWA, Above the Law, we actually organised
that tour. If there’s a mic there and Mello’s on it, its getting
blazed and no one wants to touch it afterwards. I was
everywhere! Its only one album I have released in 1990, yet
people still have me in their minds and heart. There’s a fan
base that’s there, the new records being played on the radio,
people come up to me on the street saying “I’ve heard your tune,
your tunes banging!”. A lot of love’s still being shown. Whether
the fan base has changed or not I know the old fan base is still
there. I’ve been approached more than once by Japanese people!
They say I’m big in Japan; Bring me out there!
DD: What were you doing before Hip Hop?
M: Yeah. The road I grew up on, the biggest Jamaican family are
my god family, you know the dad is my godfather. Nine kids, one
of the sons is a man called Patrick Booth who in the eighties
was a very big U.K. RnB singer, who blew up America and
everything. He was working with another guy called Morgan Khan
who had a label. When I was little all the newest soul that was
coming out and the Booth family had all the tunes. All the
family can sing really great and the dad was a pastor so all the
kids sang in the church. And my sisters were into Heatwave and
were soul heads as well. So before Hip Hop I was a soul boy. I
was a 12-year-old soul head. At the same time there was that
reggae influence as well. I did like The Specials as well, the
two-tone thing. I liked some of the songs of The Beat, but in my
area two tone was a bit like a whiteified reggae music thing, it
wasn’t really hip. So I was a soul head man, straight up. You
know we had a lot of good soul here throughout the 70’s and the
80’s.
DD: What are you listening to right
now?
M: Kumasi. Kumasi the rude boy! (Laughs). He’s bad! Intelligent
for the mind, man. That’s what I am listening to right now. I’m
not that impressed with the stuff that’s out there. Don’t get me
wrong, quality wise it’s amazing. Standard wise, its lofty. I
try listening to Hip Hop shows on the radio, the dj’s, they are
my boys I love them but I cant listen for so long. You know,
stop telling me all that! I’m not 18 anymore I can’t deal with
that for two hours in my head. I need something with some
substance. So I’m not listening to that much stuff at all
really. Every now and then I hear something. You know something?
I am more inclined to listen to my own peoples things because I
find I can really meditate on them and really absorb them and
people that I know have a level of integrity. I can believe what
they are saying because I know them. I know that’s how they are.
They’re not just trying to influence people or trying to sell by
way of influencing. I’m more inclined to listen to stuff that’s
not released, that’s online just to be heard. It has a hunger
and a desire to be known. Not the desire to be qualified by
other people. I am making this cos I believe in it and that is
something that I love. That is something that we did what we did
and still do what we do because of that belief and that love.
That you can impact on society and your surroundings. I went
quiet for a while. I went to university to do my studying. I am
studying Middle Eastern studies, studying their political
systems, history, eastern philosophy, hypnosis and spirituality
from the different masters. We looked at the development of
spiritual teaching.
I am from the Hip Hop school of
acknowledging yourself. To me the Zulu Nation was teaching that
kind of stuff, Hip Hop was teaching that kind of stuff and I
believe that that kind of focus has been deliberately cut. You
know what Chuck D told us when he first came over to the U.K.?
Chuck D, Professor Griff, Flavor, Brother Mike and Brother
James…we all went to the Hammersmith roundabout and they stayed
there and we’re kicking it till three in the morning and Chuck D
goes “listen. You know what Public Enemies goal is? Our goal is
to make thousands of potential leaders on the planet”. Does Bush
or Blair want to do that? Even if G8 are concerned about
maintaining their position, a gang of demons if you ask me,
Chuck D was coming out saying “we’ve got no money. All we’ve got
is our spirit and our words and our mind and our love. And with
that we want to make 10, 000 leaders around the world before our
mission is over”. They’ve definitely made leaders in the world,
know what I’m saying? Now, where is anyone with that type if
vision today? I can’t see it. So, I’m gonna try (laughs). And I
will try and influence others to try.
DD: Any big ups?
M: Yeah, I have to big up Damilola, thanks for doing this
interview. And it’s been very enjoyable indeed. I wanna big up
Sparky Ski, DJ Pogo, DJ Biznizz, Cutmaster Swift, all the
en4cers, Monie Love, Chuck D, Naheem aka Annakin Joseph, all the
old school poppers and breakers, Truly Unique, Popping Wizards,
Breakazoids, Micron, Sidewalk, The Academy Dancers, London
Posse, Bionic, Demon Boys, all of the old crew. I have to shout
out Arrow, Sir Prize, 279…everybody who’s going to support me or
has supported me and shown me love, man. Big them all up. And
all of my thanks and my gratitude go to my creator, for what I
have and what I don’t have. Cos in the creators wisdom it has
been given to me and I believe the creator has love for all of
us. So what we have and don’t have, you have or don’t have out
of love. I don’t care how soft that sounds, love has got to be
the most powerful emotion. Out of love people will put their
life on the line, it’s a powerful thing.
Give them what they Want” is out so go get it! Peace x
-
Darkling Dami
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